Chapter 5: The Second World War 1939-1945

Introduction

The Second World War was a global war between the world’s leading powers that caused great and lasting destruction to human civilization. A catastrophic instance of ‘total war,’ even neutral countries were profoundly affected. Fought across a vast geography, from the jungles of Madagascar and deserts of North Africa to the steppes of East Asia, few escaped its wrath. The ambitions of the aggressor states—on the one hand Germany, Japan, and Italy, and on the other, the Soviet Union (officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics-USSR), which invaded both Finland and Poland, dictated the war’s geography. Each belligerent sought to take advantage of the war to create new security regimes and secure and protect their international status.

The Second World War was fought between two rival groups of states, Axis powers and Allied powers. The major Axis powers were Germany, Japan, and Italy while the main Allied powers, also known as Allies, were Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States.

The Outbreak of the Second World War

After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, Hitler turned his attention to Poland, demanding the annexation of the Free City of Danzig and the abolition of the Polish Corridor, a narrow strip linking Poland with the Baltic Sea and dividing East Prussia from the rest of Germany (Gilbert, 2004:15). The Second World War began with the German attack on Poland on September 1,1939 (Parker, 2001:21).

On September 1, German troops crossed the Polish frontier. Adolf Hitler’s method in Poland was called ‘Blitzkrieg’—a lightning war. For starters, German air attacks destroyed much of the Polish air force. Second, German bombers attacked at road and rail communications, munitions dumps, and civilian centers. These wellcoordinated German tanks and armored vehicles with devastating air power destroyed Polish forces within a short time. The aim of the invasion of Poland was not only to regain the territories lost in 1918 but also to establish the German rule over Poland (Gilbert, 2004:14-15). A few hours after the German invasion of Poland, the British and French governments demanded that Germany suspend its aggressive action, which Berlin declined to do. Having guaranteed the integrity of Poland’s territory in April 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. Thus, the European phase of the Second World War began.

Only few days before the beginning of the Second World War, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had concluded a non-aggression treaty on August 23, 1939. The NaziSoviet Non-Aggression Pact divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, and thereby partitioned Poland between two countries. Germany ceded the greater part of Lithuania to the Soviet Union in return for a larger share of Poland. Following the German invasion, the Red Army invaded Poland from the east on September 17, 1939.

The Germans aimed to overthrow the French government, invade France, and minimize Britain’s continental influence. In June 1940, Hitler launched what was then the most ambitious step of the war: the occupation of Paris, something not achieved since 1871. By June 14, 1940, German military vehicles had reached Paris. On June 16, a new French government was formed under Marshal HenriPhilippe Pétain, who asked the Germans for an armistice. This was signed on June 22, 1940, dividing the country into two parts, an occupied and an unoccupied zone. The victories of Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany, in May-June 1940 led to a new phase in the Second World War. After the fall of France, Germany began to master Western Europe, and Italy entered the war on its side. Britain was forced to fight alone. But a month into office on June 4, 1940, Prime Minister Churchill promised resistance, “if necessary for years, if necessary alone: [W]e shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”.

After the fall of France, Hitler ordered German troops to prepare a detailed plan for the invasion of Britain. Hitler’s aim was to deprive Britain of any hope of allies. Besides the geopolitical and ideological reasons for attacking the Soviet Union, an immediate factor was the impracticability of a cross-Channel invasion. Hitler discarded Sea Lion and turned to Operation Barbarossa against Soviet Russia.

In June 1940, Winston Churchill predicted a battle that never occurred. Instead, the Germans carried out a spasmodic air campaign against Britain that lasted into 1945, and failed. Britain was never forced to fight on its beaches or its hills. Since the Royal Navy deterred a seaborne invasion of Britain, the Germans had to rely on air power. Heavily underestimated, the British scored a stalemate in battle and a triumph in strategy (Ferris and Mawdsley, 2015:327). The British resistance against Germany can be explained by two important reasons: The first was the political leadership of Churchill, who replaced Chamberlain in May 1940. During the Battle of Britain, he exhibited courage and gave moral support to the British public. The second reason was Churchill’s personal diplomacy. Behind the scenes he convinced US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to finalize American neutrality, while still sending huge amounts of war munitions to Britain under the Lend-Lease program (Coffin et.al. 2011:824). In March 1941, the US Congress passed the ingenious Lend-Lease Act, which authorized the president to put American resources at the disposal of any state whose defense he regarded as necessary for American security. Although the program was initially aimed to rescue Britain, it was eventually included more than thirty-eight states fighting against the Axis Powers.

From European War to Global War

The German invasion of Soviet Russia in June 1941 was the greatest military operation in history. The 3.5 millionstrong invasion force consisted of three main army groups: Army Group North attacked from East Prussia and fought along the Baltic coastal lands towards Leningrad; Army Group Centre moved towards Minsk, Smolensk, and Moscow; and Army Group South advanced towards Ukraine. In their invasion of the Soviet Union, German forces used the same Blitzkrieg tactics they had employed in 1939–1940 against Poland, France, and the Low Countries. The codename for the German invasion was Operation Barbarossa in honor of Frederick I, the Holy Roman Emperor who organized a 12th century crusade to liberate the holy places of Christianity from the Muslim control. According to Nazi propaganda, the German campaign in Russia was of a similar character—a crusade against a Bolshevik regime that threatened European civilization.

For Roberts, three aspects explain the successful defense of Moscow:

• First, the Soviet Union had human and material power to block the advance of Operation Typhoon. In mid-November Moscow was defended by a quarter of a million troops with 1,250 artillery guns, 500 tanks, and 600–700 aircraft. Though initially outnumbered by the Germans, by early December the Soviet force had grown to over a million.
• Second, General Georgy K. Zhukov was appointed as Commander-in-Chief for the defense of the city. To become one of the major Soviet commanders of World War II, he was able to mobilize and maintain a successful defense of Moscow, and eventually launch a counteroffensive.
• Third, when the German troops advanced towards Moscow, there was a general panic in the city due to the rumors circulating about the Soviet evacuation. To prevent this, Stalin stayed in the city (Roberts, 2002:39-40).

On November 6 and 7, he delivered a speech in front of the public for the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. His tone was confident and his message patriotic.

Overall, there were about 16 million Soviet civilian war deaths. Of these, 11 million died under the German occupation and another five million were victims of Nazi deportation. It is difficult to be precise about civilian death rates from 1941– 1945, but at least several million fell victim to the Germans after Stalingrad. As for military casualties, the Red Army lost over 16 million, including four million dead, between 1941-1945 (Roberts, 2002:149-150). Besides plundering the lands they invaded, the Nazis also used native inhabitants as slave laborers, transporting around seven million people from around Europe to Germany for such purposes. Of these, Russians and Poles in particular were seen as inferior human beings in the Nazi ideology. Living in terrible conditions, they were poorly fed and worked incredibly long hours. Many perished from hunger and disease. Many of the leading German companies also collaborated in the enslavement and exploitation of foreign laborers, and Jewish property across Europe was expropriated. Ruling Europe through terror and force, the New German Order leaned heavily on the torture chamber, prison cell, firing squad, and concentration camps. After annexing certain Polish provinces, the Nazis also executed priests and leading intellectuals and closed many churches and schools.

Inter-Allied Conferences Durıng the War and the Establıshment of the Unıted Nations

Between 1943 and 1945, the major Allied powers, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union, soon known as the Big Three, met at a series of conferences to decide upon the fate of the post-war international system. Here, they tried to establish a general framework for sociopolitical relations between states and discuss the formation of the United Nations.

At the Casablanca Conference (January 14-24, 1944) they decided on the “unconditional surrender” of Germany and Japan and not to launch the cross-Channel liberation of German-occupied Europe until the early summer. Not that the Allies had forgotten Asia. From November 22-26, 1943, days before the celebrated Tehran Conference, US President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill met at the First Cairo Conference, talks to which Roosevelt had also invited Chinese leader Chiang Kaishek. Aware of Roosevelt’s anticolonial penchant, Churchill was not pleased with the inclusion of Chiang, fearing Roosevelt might make commitments to the Chinese leader to the detriment of British interests. By including it in the Four-Power Declaration, the Americans helped elevate China to the status of a major world power.

In February 1945 Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met to discuss the political problems of post-war Europe in the Crimean town of Yalta. The main points discussed at the Yalta Conference (February 4-11, 1945) were as follows:

• the establishment of the United Nations,
• the partition of Germany and reparation payments,
• the settlement of Polish issue,
• whether and under what conditions the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan (Bell, 2011:202).

While the war was still raging, representatives of the United States, China, Russia, and Britain met at the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington D.C. in the late summer of 1944 to draft the structure and basic principles of a new international organization, i.e. the United Nations.

The End of the Second World War

The Potsdam Declaration was signed by Churchill and Truman and a nominal Chinese representative. Stalin did not sign it since the Soviet Union was not technically at war with Japan. The practical aim of signing this declaration was to keep a document in the hands of the Americans. But the declaration was never formally handed to Japan, but rather broadcast on the radio and then published in the press so that the Japanese authorities would have knowledge of it.

The German victory over France in May and June of 1940 determined the territorial framework of the war in central and western Europe for the coming four years. Germany’s loss of the Battle of Britain in the summer and autumn of 1940 was another critical point that encouraged the Allies to continue fighting, while also giving the United States a later base to intervene in the European continent. With Operation Barbarossa, Germany conquered large territories of the Soviet Union, but could not capture Moscow. The Soviets overcame the offensive and showed the world that Germany could be beaten. In East Asia and the Pacific front, the US experienced a major shock with the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Japan then conquered the rest of Southeast Asia, capturing its extensive minerals, rubber, and oil. Through its group of islands stretching from the North to the South Pacific, Japan also established a long defensive line. The initial triumph of Germany in the west and Japan in the east marked the geographical limits of both. By late 1942, both Axis powers had reached their limits. From mid-1942 to mid-1943 the balance of power shifted towards the Allies. In the German-Soviet war, the Battle of Stalingrad between July 1942 and February 1943 obliterated the “legendary invincibility” of the German army. The same happened to Japan in a series of naval battles through summer 1945. Although Japan was militarily defeated by mid-July, it did not admit this until mid-August. Even after the Soviet entry and two atomic bombs, Japan still dragged its feet, waiting until the very last moment to surrender.

Europe was greatly damaged in the Second World War and in a very weak position after 1945. Asia was also battered. Japan and Germany were temporarily disarmed in order to pose no regional threat. Almost immediately, a new balance of power was formed between the United States and Soviet Union, with the former’s main impetus the revival of the world economy. In 1945 the victorious states established the United Nations to resolve further international conflicts, a task the League of Nations had clearly not achieved. Sadly, however, the end of the war brought little peace. The old European empires sought to re-impose themselves in Indonesia, Vietnam, Burma, and India, an impossible task after the damage both material and psychological done to their reputations by the Germans and Japanese. Most former colonies in Asia became independent by 1954. The mandate system of the League of Nations that allowed France and Britain to dominate the Middle East also collapsed with the creation of new independent Arab states. This was followed by the unilateral declaration of an independent state of Israel by the Jews, thus sowing the seeds of many future ArabIsraeli wars. Meanwhile in Eastern Europe, the old frontiers were mainly restored. In the case of Poland, however, its borders were shifted significantly westward at the expense of Poles in the east (now the Soviet Union) and Germans in the west. In Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic States, insurgencies were waged against the imposition of Soviet rule. In Greece, the end of Axis power led to a civil war between nationalists and monarchists on one side and Communist partisans on the other (Overy, 2015:5). The roots of the Cold War had everywhere been sown.